Relief Social Media

In an ever globalizing world, the United States is increasingly asked to come to the aid of nations in crisis. Meanwhile, the civilian world is experiencing an information renaissance as social media enables the population to be information authors. RSM seeks to connect the men and women providing relief to information that has the potential to enhance their efficacy and by extension save lives.

Capabilities

RSM is designed to respond to the needs of these men and women delivering relief in difficult circumstances, in an ever evolving information-scape. Through the Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories has taken a two pronged approach:

(1) Watchman is a social media dashboard created to impart an understanding of relevant social media data. It approaches this problem by bringing together several social media sources designed to begin the process of understanding how to effectively present valuable information to relief workers in a manner that fosters situational understanding that can be acted upon.

(2) Generative Modeling is a framework for social media, which enables diverse experimentation and training on synthetic data that closely mimics real world social data. The model is, by design, highly extensible and takes into account the impact of geospatial interactions, topic influence on behavior, and individual biases.

Key Features and Benefits

Enhanced Situational Awareness: Better isight into the current situation through the eyes of those steeped in it allowing rapid response to emergencies and the potential to anticipate issues ahead of time.

Harnessing NGOs and Indigenous Assets: Greater knowledge of the non-US assets available in theater, be them indigenous or provided by NGOs attempting to provide aid.Improved Reconstruction: Understanding better what infrastructure is in use, the efficacy of current efforts and a capability to be more responsive the needs of the populace.